June 28, 2026: A Floating Nursery Log

Before we look at the nursery log, here's the loon update.  All our hopes for fledging a chick this year may fall upon little Northern Pip and its parents' vigorous protection of it from all danger. 

Northern Pip, five days old.  Photo by Debby Crowley.

Which by all appearances, they are doing. 

Two parents and one chick means twice the attention.  Photo by Debby C.

The reason we have all our hopes on Pip is because the southern pair has abandoned its nest - and for no clear reason.  On Monday, Shayne D. noted that both adults were out on the lake away from the nest.  On Thursday, seeing the same situation, I took a look at the nest, and found a single egg. 

A lone, unattended egg in the southern nest.

On Friday afternoon, the Loon Preservation Committee (LPC) gave the order to mark the egg and check it on Saturday.  Dave T. did that and found it had not been tended, so he collected it for analysis by the LPC.  We may not know the status of the egg until winter when things slow down enough for the LPC biologists to do forensics, but we may learn then why it was abandoned.  There's a chance the southern pair will attempt a second nest, but if not, we'll have to hope the big, strong male, and unknown female that make up the northern pair can keep Pip safe all summer long.

Our banded male, up close and personal.

Wicwas isn't the only Lake having loon challenges.  A pair using one of the floating nests that the LPC has a camera on is on their fourth egg, after three failures, each for a different reason.  Details were in the Laconia Daily Sun yesterday (see page 25).

Now the "nurse log".  You may have heard about nurse logs in the forest - large trees that fall to the ground and decay slowly over many years, providing a fertile bed for plants to grow.  Much of a forest floor is covered with a dense layer of leaves which can prevent germination, so these fallen trees can become filled with new life.  Well, on a paddle this week I came across an aquatic analog, an old log floating in the lake that's serving the same purpose, but for bog-centric flora.

Nurse log

Let's look at what's growing here.

The primary base plant is Sphagnum Moss, which covers much of the log and may provide a good place for other plants to take hold.

Sphagnum Moss

The tall, grass-like plant growing most profusely on the right is a sedge.  There are many varieties of sedge and I won't attempt to determine which this is.

Sedge

In the center is another tall plant, this one woody, which can grow quite tall and dominates much of the higher ground in the bogs around Lake Wicwas:  Leatherleaf.

Leatherleaf

Growing on the right side of the log, with a reddish-green color (which helps identity this species) is Bog St. John's Wort.

Bog St. John's Wort

One of the most interesting of our bog plants is the carnivorous Round-leaved Sundew, which is on the log in several places, but most visibly right in front of the St. John's Wort beside the bare spot on the log.

Round-leaved Sundew

When you find these on your paddles near a bog, look closely and you'll see fine hairs with a sticky drop of dew on each which catches small insects which the plant then digests.

Hardest to find on the log is the Purple Pitcher Plant, another carnivorous plant.  These are small, tubular stems growing right along the water's edge.  They'll be easier to spot in fall when they've grown larger.

A mature Pitcher Plant, fully grown in October.

Finally, the crown jewel of the log is the Rose Pogonia.

Rose Pogonia

This pretty member of the orchid family also grows on wet soil around water, and it's extremely abundant this year.  There are two growing on the log and another ten or so behind the log at the very top of the first photo of the full nursery.

These are some of the most common species seen in an exemplary acidic bog habitat in New Hampshire.  I will remind you that I have no formal training in botany, but am learning from books and often the internet (PlantNet ID is excellent), and I may not have all these right.  If you notice an error, please let me know!

In a few weeks, I hope to have a similar post on plants in the aquatic habitat, this time with expert assistance.  Wicwas' resident biologist, Russ Brummer, is leading a Weed-Watcher class on July 11th, and all are welcome to participate.  Below are the details in case you're interested in becoming a weed-watcher, or are just curious about the aquatic plants we have in our NH lakes.  Last year's class was interesting, and a lot of fun - you can see what we did on the July 13, 2025 post, "Weed School".

I hope to see you there!

October 12, 2025: Hoppers and Hawks

Adding to the migrating raptors this week was a Red-tailed Hawk rising up on the thermals over the summit of Bald Knob in the Ossipee Mountains.

Red-tailed Hawk in the Ossipees

I had some nice views of it with the sun shining through its plumage, though it quickly rose up to a small spec in the sky.  It didn't have a very red tail, or perhaps the bright light washed the color out.

Raptors use these thermals in their migration by riding them high in the air, sometimes thousands feet, without using energy flapping their wings.  Then they soar southward for miles, slowly losing altitude, until they find another rising thermal air column.  And if there's a stiff northwest wind, all the better.  

I also heard a red-tail hawk up on the hills behind Lake Wicwas this week but I couldn't see it.  They typically don't stay in the Lakes Region through the winter, migrating just south of us, but perhaps that boundary is moving north now.

I found myself looking skyward for other reasons also.

The foliage doesn't seem as bright this year, perhaps due to the drought conditions, but there are plenty of beautiful trees in localized areas, especially around the lake where they had plenty of water all summer.

Looking down can be fruitful too.  That's where I found this huge American Toad camouflaged among the dry leaves.

American Toad (Anaxyrus americanus)

There are migrating birds on the water too, including this flock of four mallards foraging for food in the shallow water near the dam on Wicwas.

Must be something good down there.

They're losing their iridescent summer colors.  

Paddling the marshy shorelines also reveals bright red American Cranberries ripening amongst the wetland growth.

If you see people tramping through the marshes in tall rubber boots, that's what they're collecting.

One must be prepared to take stowaways on board when paddling through the marshes.

Lots of little bugs hopped on my boat.

These appear to be different than the longer, thinner bugs that hop onto my kayak earlier in the summer.  I think these are a species of Planthopper, likely the Common Pondlily Planthopper.

Common Pondlily Planthopper (Megamelus davisi)

Wikipedia states there are over 12,000 species of planthoppers;  these are in the family Delphacidae, which includes "only" 2000 species.   

Thankfully these insects are purely herbivores.  That protrusion on its head is for sucking plant juices rather than human juices, so these are harmless to us; most had jumped ship before I got back to port.  But on my way home I passed by yet another pretty wetland plant, a variety of St John's Wort growing on a boulder in the lake.

Bog St. John's Wort  (Triadenum fraseri)

There's always something new and interesting to discover on the shores of your favorite lake.